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This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival
material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are
physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available
through the World Wide Web. See the
section for more information.

Preservation of the Fiddler's Grove Collection was made possible through a grant from
the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Fiddler's Grove, an old-time-music and family-oriented campground, which hosts traditional
music and dance events throughout the year is owned and operated by Harper and Wanona
Van Hoy in Union Grove, N.C. The Ole Time Fiddler's & Bluegrass Festival, a fiddling
competition, has been held annually in the spring since Fiddler's Grove's founding
in 1970, and the Square-Up, a clogging competition was held in the fall until 1982.
The fiddling festival, however, traces its history in Union Grove to 1924 when Harper
Van Hoy's father, H. P. Van Hoy, founded the Old Time Fiddlers Convention as a school
fundraiser. The collection provides an overview of the history and operation of Fiddler's
Grove, and its main entertainment events, the Ole Time Fiddler's & Bluegrass Festival
and the Square-Up. The work of Harper Van Hoy and Wanona Van Hoy in building the reputation
of Fiddler's Grove as a gathering place for old-time music and family entertainment
is documented throughout the collection. Also documented is the split between Harper
Van Hoy and his brother, J. Pierce Van Hoy, which resulted in two competing Van Hoy-operated
spring fiddling events in Union Grove, 1970-1979. General correspondence, newspaper
clippings, promotional material, and other items go back to the founding of the Old
Time Fiddlers Convention. Festival materials include participation registration information,
lists of winners, judges' notes, and correspondence, and other items. Also included
are open-reel tapes, an eight-track tape, compact discs, and a videotape, all of which
relate to the Ole Time Fiddler's & Bluegrass Festival.

Use of audio and video materials may require production of listening and viewing copies.

This collection contains additional materials that are not processed and are currently
not available to researchers. For information about access to these materials, contact
Research and Instructional Services staff. Please be advised that preparing unprocessed
materials for access can be a lengthy process.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants,
as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Fiddler's Grove Collection #20016, Southern Folklife
Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Provenance

Received from Harper Van Hoy in October 1990 (Acc. 89008, 89009), February 2000 (Acc.
98553), August 2001 (Acc. 99061), October 2001 (Acc. 99096), and February 2002 (Acc.
99183). Website harvested using Archive-It, beginning in October 2013 (Acc. 101956).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or
confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy
laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. §
132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of
State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.).
Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to
identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent
of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under
common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's
private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable
person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no
responsibility.

The following terms from
Library of Congress Subject
Headings
suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the
entire collection; the terms do
not usually represent
discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or
items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's
online catalog.

Fiddler's Grove, an old-time-music and family-oriented campground, was developed on
land purchased in Union Grove, N.C., by dairy farmer and fiddler Harper Van Hoy and
his wife, Wanona, in 1970. From the beginning, Fiddler's Grove was envisioned as the
site for an annual fiddling competition. Central entertainment events at Fiddler's
Grove have been the Ole Time Fiddler's & Bluegrass Festival, a spring fiddling competition
held annually since 1970, and the Square-Up, a fall clogging dance competition held
until 1982.

The history of Fiddler's Grove, and particularly the Ole Time Fiddler's & Bluegrass
Festival, is rooted in Van Hoy family history and the history of fiddling competitions
in Union Grove, N.C. In 1924, Harper Van Hoy's father, H. P. Van Hoy, a school teacher
and musician, started the Old Time Fiddlers Convention as a fundraiser for the Union
Grove school. Held annually on the school grounds every Easter weekend, the fiddling
convention was a popular community event that brought many area old-time fiddlers
into the small unincorporated town of Union Grove to compete. With the folk music
revival in the 1950s and 1960s, however, this small-town community event became increasingly
popular with young people who would travel great distances to attend. The unconventional
lifestyles of many of these young people, particularly their long hair and consumption
of illegal drugs and alcohol, disturbed many residents of the conservative farming
community. After the 1968 convention, a group of Union Grove residents, led by a Methodist
minister, protested the immoral and illegal conduct attributed to the young people
attending the event from outside the community. The Iredell County School Board decided
that the fiddling convention would have to find a new home after the 1969 event. Harper
and Wanona Van Hoy purchased land near the Union Grove school with the intention of
developing Fiddler's Grove into a family campground that would be the new home of
the fiddling convention. However, Harper Van Hoy and his older brother, J. Pierce
Van Hoy, disagreed over the direction the convention should take. The disagreement
resulted in two rival fiddling events being held each spring in Union Grove from 1970
to 1979.

Since it was no longer a fundraiser for the school, Pierce Van Hoy felt the convention
should be promoted and developed commercially into a profitable business while promoting
and preserving old-time music. He held his event on his farm and called it the World's
Championship Old-Time Fiddlers Convention. Financially committed to Fiddler's Grove,
Harper Van Hoy felt it was important to focus on the music and the community by creating
a family atmosphere and enforcing a ban on alcohol and illegal drugs. He called his
event the Ole Time Fiddler's & Bluegrass Festival and received early support from
Doc Watson, Lee and Jean Shilling, Alan Jabbour, and Allein Stanley, among others.
While the World's Championship Old-Time Fiddlers Convention attracted large crowds
and was immediately financially successful, Harper Van Hoy's Ole Time Fiddler's &
Bluegrass Festival deliberately stayed small, despite early financial losses, by implementing
an invitation-only attendance policy in 1973. Both fiddling events were held simultaneously
in Union Grove over Easter weekends. After newspaper accounts erroneously reported
drug-related incidents and other problems occurring at the Ole Time Fiddler's & Bluegrass
Festival instead of the World's Championship Old-Time Fiddlers Convention, Harper
Van Hoy moved his festival to Memorial Day weekend in 1974 distance it from his brother's
festival. Community residents continued to protest the influx of illegal drugs, alcohol,
and promiscuity attendant with the huge crowds at Pierce Van Hoy's World's Championship
Old-Time Fiddlers Convention. The enactment of a bill to regulate rock festivals and
other mass gatherings eventually resulted in the closing of the World's Championship
Old-Time Fiddlers Convention by court order in 1980.

Fiddler's Grove continued to host the Ole Time Fiddler's & Bluegrass Festival on Memorial
Day weekend along with a number of other events. The Festival's commitment to the
preservation and perpetuation of old-time music is particularly reflected in its special
competition categories of Old-Time Fiddler (fiddlers 55 years and older who play strictly
by ear with no formal violin training) and Heritage Tune (in which the fiddler must
not only perform but tell the origin and story of an old tune). The Square-Up, an
annual dance competition, held over Labor Day weekend was an institution at Fiddler's
Grove until 1982. This dance competition featured traditional mountain, precision,
and smooth clogging teams as well as individual buck and flatfoot dancers. Fiddler's
Grove and the Ole Time Fiddler's & Bluegrass Festival were nominated in the Local
Legacy category by Senator Jesse Helms as part of the Library of Congress Bicentennial
in 2000.

The collection provides an overview of the history and operation of Fiddler's Grove in Union Grove, N.C., and its main annual entertainment events, the Ole Time Fiddler's & Bluegrass Festival, a fiddling competition held in the spring, and the Square-Up, a clogging dance competition held in the fall until 1982. The work of Harper Van Hoy and Wanona Van Hoy in building the reputation of Fiddler's Grove as a gathering place for old-time music and family entertainment is documented throughout the collection. Also documented
is the split between Harper Van Hoy and his brother, J. Pierce Van Hoy, which resulted in two competing Van Hoy-operated spring fiddling events in Union
Grove, 1970-1979. General correspondence, newspaper clippings, promotional material,
and other items go back to the founding of the Old Time Fiddlers Convention by Harper Van Hoy's father, H. P. Van Hoy, as a fundraiser for the Union Grove school in 1924. Festival materials include participation
registration information, lists of winners, judges' notes, and correspondence, and
other items. Also included are open-reel tapes, an eight-track tape, compact discs,
and a videotape, all of which relate to the Ole Time Fiddler's & Bluegrass Festival.

General correspondence, newspaper clippings, and promotional materials relating to
Fiddler's Grove and the Ole Time Fiddler's & Bluegrass Festival. Documented are the
history of the fiddling festival from H. P. Van Hoy's founding of the Old Time Fiddlers
Convention as a fund-raiser for the Union Grove school to the difference of opinion
between his sons Pierce and Harper Van Hoy, which resulted in rival fiddling events,
Pierce Van Hoy's World's Championship Old-Time Fiddlers Convention and Harper Van
Hoy's Ole Time Fiddler's & Bluegrass Festival, both initially held on Easter weekend,
and the ultimate court-ordered demise of Pierce Van Hoy's convention and success of
Harper Van Hoy's festival. Promotional materials include Fiddler's Grove brochures,
posters, program books and schedules of events, mailing lists, press releases, and
information on album production and sales. There are also program books from the last
few years of H. P. Van Hoy's Old Time Fiddlers Convention at the Union Grove school;
Local Legacy documentation, including a history of the festival, a biography of Harper
Van Hoy, photocopies of photographs with detailed identification, and letters of support;
miscellaneous Fiddler's Grove material, including lists of craft vendors, certificates
of appreciation, drawings, a biography of H. P. Van Hoy, tickets, bumper stickers,
newsletters, performer contracts, student papers, and speeches. Related material includes
items from or about the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP);
booking agencies; non-Fiddler's Grove brochures and promotional material; the National
Folk Festival Association; and the North Carolina Division of Health.

General correspondence traces the development of Fiddler's Grove and, particularly,
its major spring and fall festivals, the Ole Time Fiddler's & Bluegrass Festival and,
until 1982, the Square-Up, from the purchase of the land and its early conception
as both family campground and the new home of H. P. Van Hoy's Fiddlers Convention
through the rift between H. P. Van Hoy's sons and the resulting twin spring fiddling
events. Correspondents include Guthrie Meade, Robin Warren, Gaither Carlton (Doc Watson's
father-in-law), Nick Hallman, and Allein Stanley.

Newspaper clippings are primarily from local and North Carolina newspapers, particularly
the
Statesville Record and Landmark, the
Greensboro News and Record, the
Charlotte Observer, and the
Winston-Salem Journal. Clippings cover the announcement of the purchase of Fiddler's Grove by Harper and
Wanona Van Hoy as the new home for the fiddling convention in 1969, the split between
the Van Hoy brothers in 1970, the move of Harper Van Hoy's fiddling festival to Memorial
Day weekend in 1974, and the court-ordered closing of Pierce Van Hoy's larger fiddling
festival in 1979. They document the Ole Time Fiddler's & Bluegrass Festival, the Square-Up,
and Pierce Van Hoy's convention. There are also articles on musicians who regularly
attend Fiddler's Grove. Included are several articles by Hank Van Hoy, Harper Van
Hoy's son.

The Fiddler's Grove promotional materials include brochures, posters, program books,
and schedules of events for the Ole Time Fiddler's & Bluegrass Festival; posters for
the Square-Up; a North Carolina tourism poster featuring Harper Van Hoy; the mailing
lists maintained primarily for the Ole Time Fiddler's Bluegrass Festival starting
in 1972; press releases for Fiddler's Grove events; and the Ole Time Fiddler's & Bluegrass
Festival album production and sales notes and records. Correspondence directly relating
to the production of the festival brochures and tickets and the production of and
orders for the festival albums are included. Of particular interest among the program
books are those from H. P. Van Hoy's Old Time Fiddlers' Convention, 1964-1969, during
the last years that the convention was held at the Union Grove school. The 1969 program
book includes receipts and notes regarding payment from the program advertisers.

Brochures for the Ole Time Fiddler's & Bluegrass Festival, 1972-2002, include the
list of the previous year's winners, other events at Fiddler's Grove, invitations
to attend, and advance ticket order forms. Correspondence with the printer and rough
drafts of the brochures are included.

Posters primarily publicize Fiddler's Grove events, most specifically the Square-Up
and the Ole Time Fiddler's & Bluegrass Festival. Also included is a North Carolina
tourism poster featuring Harper Van Hoy playing the fiddle. Requests for copies of
the fiddler's festival posters are also included.

Expand/collapse Subseries 1.3.5. Program Books and Schedules of Events, 1964-2001.

About 30 items.

Arrangement: chronological.

A small selection of program books and a more extensive collection of schedules of
events for the Ole Time Fiddler's & Bluegrass Festival at Fiddler's Grove. Material
for 1970 includes unfinished excerpts as well as the finished program. Of particular
interest are the program books from H. P. Van Hoy's Old Time Fiddlers Convention,
1964-1969, during the last years that the convention was held at the Union Grove school.
The 1969 program book includes receipts and notes regarding payment from the program
advertisers. Only the cover of the 1968 program book is included.

When Harper Van Hoy announced at the 1972 Ole Time Fiddler's & Bluegrass Festival
that attendance at future festivals would be limited to 5,000 and controlled by an
invitation-only policy, with an agreement on the part of recipients that they would
honor the family atmosphere by taking a pledge not to consume illegal drugs or alcohol
during the festival, the mailing list maintained by Fiddler's Grove became particularly
important and formed the basis for the growing "Fiddler's Grove Family." The development of the mailing list eliminated the need for outside publicity and
allowed for the smooth transition of the change of date for the Festival from Easter
weekend to Memorial Day weekend in 1974. A selection of mailing lists and additions,
some on separate slips of paper, 1972-1991, is included.

Correspondence directly relating to orders for albums from Fiddler's Grove Ole Time
Fiddler's & Bluegrass Festival, including documentation of complimentary copies sent
by Harper Van Hoy to radio stations, libraries, and archives. Album production notes
include Harper Van Hoy's correspondence with Harry Deal of Galaxie II, contracts,
and notes relating to the production of festival albums. Fiddling festival judge coordinator
Allein Stanley wrote the liner notes to the 1975 festival album, and the manuscript
of her liner notes is included.

In 2000, the Ole Time Fiddler's & Bluegrass Festival was chosen by North Carolina
Senator Jesse Helms to participate in the Library of Congress Local Legacies project
in celebration of the Library's Bicentennial (1800-2000). The application materials
include a history of the festival beginning with the fiddling convention founded in
1924 by H. P. Van Hoy, photocopies of photographs of the festival throughout the years
with detailed identification, a biography of Harper Van Hoy, and permission forms.
Correspondence details the application process and includes solicitation of assistance
and letters of support as well as the letters of support themselves. Correspondents
include Senator Helms, festival judge coordinator Allein Stanley, North Carolina Arts
Council Folklife director Wayne Martin, and a number of individuals at the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, including Southern Folklife Collection Sound and
Image Librarian Steve Weiss. Guidelines and publications relating to the Local Legacies
project are also included.

Miscellaneous material relating directly or tangentially to Fiddler's Grove. Included
are material about ASCAP and booking agencies; brochures and promotional items from
other festivals and musicians; information abut craft vendors, the National Folk Festival
Association, and the North Carolina Division of Health; and other material about Fiddler's
Grove and the Ole Time Fiddler's & Bluegrass Festival, including performer contracts,
student papers, and speeches. Correspondence with the ASCAP relating to the licensing
of material performed at Fiddler's Grove documents Harper Van Hoy's struggle to get
ASCAP to recognize that old-time and bluegrass music primarily draws from public domain
material. Material relating to craft vendors and exhibitors was collected for craft
shows at Fiddler's Grove. Material relating to Fiddler's Grove includes drawings,
a biography of H. P. Van Hoy, and certificates of appreciation. National Folk Festival
Association material includes information on the American Folklife Foundation Act
and the Calendar of Folk Festivals and Related Events. The 1974 material relating
to the North Carolina Division of Health resulted from a state bill that regulated
open-air assemblies of more than 5,000 people continuously for 24 hours and influenced
the changing of dates for the fiddling festival from Easter weekend to Memorial Day
weekend to end confusion with Pierce Van Hoy's much larger Easter weekend fiddling
convention. Miscellaneous Ole Time Fiddler's & Bluegrass Festival printed items include
tickets, car passes, a 1984 Fiddler's Grove New Years card announcing the change of
festival dates, Fiddler's Grove campground brochure, Fiddler's Grove 1995 newsletter,
and a 1973 Fiddler's Grove bumper sticker. The small selection of performer contracts
date from the early 1970s and includes contracts for Doc Watson, Jimmy Martin and
the Sunny Mountain Boys, Hoyt Herbert and the Lincoln County Partners, and Nick Hancock
and the Bluegrass Gentlemen. There are several papers by students, mostly from the
early 1970s, about the history of the Van Hoy fiddling events. Particularly notable
are two speeches and a short article by Hank Van Hoy, Harper Van Hoy's son, who attended
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as an undergraduate and as a law student
during the 1970s.

Harper Van Hoy family personal personal materials include photographs, family genealogy,
certificates of appreciation, and publicity for various public performances that Wanona
and Harper Van Hoy were involved in as musicians.

Harper Van Hoy's Ole Time Fiddler's & Bluegrass Festival is documented by year from
1970 to 1999, with the exception of 1997 for which there are no materials. Included
are registration forms (where applicable divided into competition categories of heritage
tunes, individuals, junior bluegrass bands, junior old-time bands, old-time fiddlers,
senior bluegrass bands, senior old-time bands, and twin fiddlers), rules and guidelines,
order of program, judges' notes, correspondence relating directly to registration
or competition judging, and a list of winners. Changes made in the festival over the
years, such as former judge Allein Stanley taking on the role of coordinator of judges
in 1973, the certification of Old-Time Fiddler status in 1978, and the introduction
of the Heritage Tune category in 1979, are documented. Of special interest is the
1968 material that pertains to H. P. Van Hoy's 44th annual Old Time Fiddlers Convention
and particularly concerns the photographs taken at that convention. Note that original
file folder titles have, for the most part, been retained.

Since 1970, the major Labor Day weekend event at Fiddler's Grove has been the annual
Square-Up, a dance festival featuring competition in traditional mountain, precision
clog and smooth dance teams, as well as individual clogging, buck and wing dancers.
Square-Up was apparently a show-case performance venue the first year, but it became
an invitation-only competition by 1971. Most years include registration of dance groups
and individuals, Square-Up specific correspondence, press releases, rules, memos,
and a list of winners. Some material on other dance events is included as these appear
to have helped shape Square-Up.

Open-reel tapes, an eight-track tape, compact discs, and a video, all of which relate
to the Ole Time Fiddler's & Bluegrass Festival.Documents relating to the production
and sale of commercial recordings of the Ole Time Fiddler's & Bluegrass Festival are
in Series 1.3.6 Festival Albums: Production and Sales.

Open-reel tapes primarily appear to be recordings of performances at the Ole Time
Fiddler's & Bluegrass Festival. In addition to the fiddle competition, some tapes
feature Betty Smith playing the psaltery, the Sunday morning service, Harper Van Hoy,
and Reid Robertson. Also included are some master tapes of festival performances for
the annual Ole Time Fiddler's & Bluegrass Festival albums. Traditional American Music
(FT-11821) appears to be a National Public Radio program. Titles and parenthetical
notes are all from the original boxes. Documentation listing performances and songs
is available in the Southern Folklife Collection vertical files for most of the recordings.

Website of Fiddler's Grove campground and old time fiddler's competition host in Union
Grove, N.C. The site includes photographs and information about frequent performers;
a schedule of events, performances, and concerts; instructions for reserving RV sites,
purchasing tickets, and camping.